NELSON NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 56, 15 September 1928, Page 11

NELSON NEWS

| THE PAKIHI LANDS j PORT AND SHIPPING (From Our Own Correspondent.) NELSON, 13th September. Last night at the Institute,1 and under tho auspices of the Nelson Philosophical' Society, Professor Easterfield gavu a very interesting lecture on the Pakihi problem. For .some time past Professor Easterfield has been making a study of the subject, and has spent a considerable amount of time down tho Buller and West Coast districts, where there are large tracts of Pakihi land. Probably the most important side of the lecture was the bringing forcibly before the gathering the urgent necessity of attending to soil problems in New Zealand. The professor said it was easy enough to do good farming of firstclass land, but when it' came to fourthclass land (under which grading Pakihi lands come) a man not only needed to be a good farmer, but also needed the assistance of everything that could be done in the way of scientific research to make a success of it. Valuable experimental work was being done on land given to the Cawthrou Institute at a peppercorn rental by. thj Railway Department, and last year the Buller County Council and the Westport Borough Council agreed to give financial assistance to the experiments. The Government also agreed to subsidise the grants at the rate of £2 for £1. The lecture was illustrated by excellent lantern slides prepared by Mr. Davies, of the Cawthron Institute, and at the conclusion both he and Professor Easterfield were accorded hearty votes of .thanks. At' yesterday's meeting 'of the Nelson Harbour Board the chairman (Mr. H. K. Duncan) and other members expressed pleasure at seeing the secretary, Mr. H. Milner, back in his place after his spell in hospital. A deputation consisting of Messrs. J. L. Brown, Dennis Neal, and H. E. Napier (secretary to the New Zealand Fruit Federation) yesterday waited on the board to suggest improvements to the facilities provided for shipping fruit at Port Nelson. In one-instance, ft was stated, it took three or four, days to load 4000 cases of fruit, and it was the desire of the growers that facilities for an average rate of loading of up to 8000 cases per day be provided. The chairman gave a sympathetic answer. The whole question was tp bo considered by the board in committee, and a report would be made to' the next monthly meeting. The Wharfinger reported that during the past month there had been a decided improvement of both inyvar.d ..and outward cargoes, there being an increase of 399 tons over the month of July. I